How it was made

The base

I wanted the base to be a pill shape with rounded edges. To achieve this I decided to use living hinges. This technique allows you to form a large radii from a single rigid material by using a repeating pattern of cut-out slots.

I used Fusion 360’s Sheet Metal tool to see how the sides would bend

Extruded sheet metal base

This tool had the advantage of then being able to unfold the pieces for laser cutting:

Unfolded side of the base

The wheel

For the wheel, each part was drawn in a sketch and then extruded. I used Fusion’s Joint tool to ensure everything fitted together.

There are two supporting beams whose joints fit under the top of the base

Ferris wheel supports

To connect the two beams there is a support bar composed of two pieces which fit together

Ferris wheel support bar

Next up was actual wheel

Ferris wheel wheel

The two wheels are joined by pressfit support bars

Ferris wheel wheel joint bars

Finally, there was the cart:

Ferris wheel cart

Laser cutting & assembly

To ensure that the fit-press joints worked I needed to account for kerf - the width of material that is lost during the laser cutting process.

After doing this, I exported all the pieces as DXFs, made some test cuts, then cut everything out.

← Laser Cut Ferris Wheel